Friday, 9 June 2017

Ever since since the very public failure of the Skully AR-1 project and the subsequent revelation of the company founders' misuse of capital obtained from crowdfunding, I've been very wary of Kickstarter and similar projects, whether bike-related or not. While the guys behind these projects might make you starry-eyed with promises of an all-singing, all-dancing product, chances for many of these products actually making it to the production stage are usually at the "slim to none" end of the probability scale.

Which is why, when the crowdfunding drive for the Atlas helmet project from Ruroc came to my attention, I greeted it with my habitual scepticism. Yes, sure, the helmet looks the dog's whatsits, and the glowing product description made me think "hmm, not bad", but at the same time I reckoned that this was yet another bit of bike gear that would never actually make it to the shops. After a bit of ferreting around on the internet I discovered that the Ruroc company already markets a helmet designed for snowboarding, freestyle skiing and downhill mountain-biking - all of which are sports that I'm not really very clued up on. And if I had paid more attention, I would have recognised their "extreme sport" lid as the one used by the works Suzuki Ecstar MotoGP™ team for its pit crew.

Tuesday, 16 May 2017

Just over a year after it was launched on the Indian domestic market, Royal Enfield are releasing the Himalayan internationally.

The Himalayan is the Chennai-based manufacturer's first all-new motorcycle for quite some time, and is a departure from the bikes that have made up their range for decades. As its name suggests, this is a purpose-built trails bike, a totally new market segment for Royal Enfield, who are better known for manufacturing characterful retro-styled motorcycles. The Harris-designed frame houses a brand-new Euro-4 compliant 410cc single-cylinder, fuel-injected engine with a claimed 24.5 BHP @ 6,500 rpm, and has ditched the company's habitual twinshock rear suspension in favour of a more contemporary monoshock layout. Front suspension is entrusted to 41mm RWU forks that embrace a 21-inch spoked front wheel (the rear wheel, also spoked, is a 17" item). The bike has disc brakes all round: a 300mm single disc/two-piston floating calliper at the front and a 240mm/single-piston floating calliper astern. As per Euro-4 specs, the brakes are equipped with ABS.

Thursday, 27 April 2017

Barcelona:
the Ramblas, the Sagrada Familia, the Camp Nou… and the Ace Cafe! That’s right,
the Catalan capital is now home to the first Ace Cafe brand franchise on the
Iberian peninsula (hmm, something other than Messi for the Madrileños to get hot under the collar about). Behind this lie
three years of negotiations and hard graft, along with several million Euros’
worth of investments before the dream of Fernando Sanchez-Crespo and his
associates (amongst which the Owner of the Barcelona dealership of a well-known
British motorcycle brand) came true.

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About the Editor

For me, motorcycling is more than just a Sunday ride. I live for it and I live it. That's what I want to put into this blog, and I hope that it will be what you, the reader, get from it. Opinion articles, product reviews, the occasional bike test, travel diaries... You'll find all this and more here on The Thruxtonian. Enjoy the Ride!
Marc